Dick Marty rendition report condemns 'cult of secrecy'

BBC News, 7 September 2011

A report for Europe's human rights watchdog has called for greater scrutiny of secret services and support for whistleblowers.

Bradley Manning was arrested in 2010

The Council of Europe investigated how countries like Britain, Germany, Romania and Lithuania assisted the US with the rendition of terror suspects.

It said a "cult of secrecy" had helped Western governments cover up abuses.

Defending "whistleblowers", it singled out US soldier Bradley Manning, accused of passing secrets to Wikileaks.

He had "acted as a whistleblower and should be treated as such", CoE rapporteur Dick Marty wrote in the report, which was due to be submitted to the CoE's Parliamentary Assembly.

The soldier is currently in a US military prison awaiting trial for passing restricted material to the controversial website.

But the report praised Mr Manning, and Wikileaks itself, for uncovering evidence of rendition.

The CoE represents 47 member-states, including both EU countries and Russia and other ex-Soviet states.

Mr Marty's report focused on the record of Western states, explaining that it was based on investigations into European links to the controversial US policy of "rendition" for terrorism suspects.

The CIA allegedly flew terror suspects around the world for interrogation in the years after 9/11, holding them in secret prisons in Europe and elsewhere.

'No licence to kill'

In his 48-page report - entitled Abuse of State Secrecy and National Security - Mr Marty looked at the level of control exercised by European states over their security services.

He urged all states to use independent parliamentary committees to oversee the work of their secret services, saying this was of "vital importance for the rule of law and democracy".

Mr Marty argued that Western governments were using the notion of state secrecy to shield their intelligence services from accountability for serious violations committed during anti-terrorist operations.

"We consider that this is simply unacceptable..." he wrote.

"A 'licence to kill' (or to abduct and torture) only exists in certain films, and in dictatorial regimes. In democratic systems, parliaments, as representatives of the people, have a right and duty to know what the government is doing in the name of the people."

Mr Marty praised investigative journalists and non-governmental organisations for their work in exposing abuses of authority.

Stressing the "fundamental role" whistleblowers had to play in an open society, he warned against "a real cult of secrecy... as an instrument of power".

While it was up to the courts to decide if Bradley Manning had committed any crime, he wrote, the CoE was "indebted to him" for the publication of a recording of a helicopter attack in Iraq "in which the crew seems to have intentionally targeted and killed civilians".

Thanks to Mr Manning, he said, a large number of embassy reports had "allowed us to learn significant details of important recent events... which are obviously of general interest".

"We therefore join Amnesty International in expressing our worries as to the treatment he receives," Mr Marty wrote in the draft report.

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Council of Europe demands truth on CIA 'black sites'

CNN News, By the CNN Wire Staff, September 5, 2011

(file photo) Thomas Hammarberg, the human rights
 commissioner for the Council of Europe.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Poland, Romania and Lithuania hosted secret prisons for "enhanced interrogation," the body says
• Human Rights Commission's Thomas Hammarberg says "the full truth" must be established
• CIA officials have acknowledged the extraordinary rendition program but refused to disclose details
• Records emerging from Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya contain potential revelations

Paris (CNN) -- The human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe urged countries that have hosted secret CIA prisons to come clean Monday, as the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches.

Thomas Hammarberg said Poland, Romania and Lithuania were among at least seven countries that hosted "black sites" for "enhanced interrogation" during the "war on terror."

"Darkness still enshrouds those who authorized and ran the black sites on European territories," he said. "The full truth must now be established and guarantees given that such forms of co-operation will never be repeated."

CIA officials have acknowledged the rendition program, but refused to discuss details and denied violating any laws. Efforts to challenge the agency and get details about it in U.S. courts have been turned aside.

Hammarberg's statement comes as documents seized from Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Libya shed light on the program of extraordinary rendition, or questioning of terror suspects in third-party countries where U.S. law does not apply.

RELATED TOPICS

• CIA Counterterrorism Center
• Council of Europe

CNN saw a March 6, 2004, CIA letter to Libyan officials about Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a former jihadist with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and now a senior commander in the anti-Gadhafi forces.

It concerned the Malaysian government's arrest of Abdullah al-Sadiq, Belhaj's nom de guerre for his rendition. A CIA officer said the man and his pregnant wife were being placed on a commercial flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to London via Bangkok and then onto Libya.

"We are planning to arrange to take control of the pair in Bangkok and place them on our aircraft for a flight to your country," the officer wrote.

Belhaj fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan, but left after their fall in 2001 and was arrested in Malaysia in 2004. After some questioning by the CIA, he was sent back to Libya and jailed.

The Council of Europe's Hammarberg said the CIA had held "high-value detainees," including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in Poland, between 2002 and 2003.

The Polish site closed and a new secret prison opened in Romania in 2003, Hammarberg charged, and existed for over two years. Lithuania also hosted two sites, he said.

Polish prosecutors and Lithuanian lawmakers have investigated the phenomenon, but Romania has shown "little genuine will to uncover the whole truth," Hammarberg charged.

"Effective investigations are imperative and long overdue," he said.

Neither the CIA nor the European countries named by Hammarberg immediately responded.

The Council of Europe is a 47-member group that promotes democracy and human rights on the continent.

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How private firms have cashed in on the climate of fear since 9/11

The past ten years have seen the growth of a national security industrial complex that melds government and business

guardian.co.uk, Paul Harris in New York, Monday 5 September 2011 

A US homeland security helicopter patrol over New York in 2003.
Photograph: US Coast Guard/AFP/Getty Images

Charles Smith always enjoyed visiting US troops aboard. Though a civilian, he had worked for the army for decades, helping to run logistical operations from the Rock Island arsenal near Davenport, Iowa.

He helped keep troops supplied, and on trips to Iraq made a point of sitting down with soldiers in mess halls. "I would always ask them: what are we doing for you?" Smith told the Guardian.

Smith eventually got oversight of a multibillion-dollar contract the military had struck with private firm KBR, then part of the Halliburton empire, to supply US soldiers in Iraq. But, by 2004, he noticed problems: KBR could not account for a staggering $1bn (£620m) of spending.

So Smith took a stand. He made sure a letter was hand-delivered to KBR officials, telling them that some future payments would be blocked. According to Smith, one KBR official reacted by saying: "This is going to get turned around."

A few days later, Smith was abruptly transferred. The payments he suspended were resumed. "The emphasis had shifted. It was not about the troops. It was all about taking care of KBR," he said. Eventually, Smith left the army. When he told his story to the New York Times, the paper ran an editorial. "In the annals of Iraq war profiteering, put Charles Smith down as one of the casualties," it wrote.

What Smith had blundered into is one of the most disturbing developments of the post-9/11 world: the growth of a national security industrial complex that melds together government and big business and is fuelled by an unstoppable flow of money. It takes many forms. In the military, it has seen the explosive growth of the contracting industry with firms such as Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, or DynCorp increasingly doing the jobs of professional soldiers. In the world of intelligence, private contractors are hired to do the jobs of America's spies. A shadowy world of domestic security has grown up, milking billions from the government and establishing a presence in every state. From border fences that don't work to dubious airport scanners, spending has been lavished on security projects as lobbyists cash in on behalf of corporate clients.

Meanwhile, generals, government officials and intelligence chiefs flock to private industry and embark on new careers selling services back to government.

"The creation of this whole industry is a disaster. But no one is talking about it," said John Mueller, a professor at Ohio State University and author of Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats and Why We Believe Them.

Contractors form huge parts of the lines of supply for American troops. But they also fly planes, provide security and take on big infrastructure projects. Next year, as US combat troops draw down from Iraq, an estimated 5,000 private contractors will provide security on behalf of the US state department. That's a deployment roughly the size of an army brigade.

Worldwide, the ratio of contractors to US soldiers in uniform is about one-to-one. During Vietnam it was one-to-eight. It has speeded up since 9/11. "In the last 10 years, spending at the Pentagon has shifted enormously to contractors," said Pratap Chatterjee, a fellow at the Centre for American Progress and industry expert.

That shift has a cost. Incidents of malpractice and fraud by contracting firms – whom critics call modern-day mercenaries – are legion. One of the most infamous was the Baghdad battle involving Blackwater that saw 17 Iraqi civilians killed in 2007. But that was just one event. An AP investigation in 2010 looked at incidents involving more than 200 contractors worldwide that ranged from drinking to sexual misconduct to a gunfight outside a nightclub in Haiti.

Oversight of contracting is weak or opaque – and is often contracted out, too. One recent investigation found $4.5bn of contracts awarded to firms with a history of problems or which had violated laws. A federal audit found an oil firm had overcharged the Pentagon by $204m for fuel in Iraq.

A similar process has hit the intelligence world. An industry has sprung up of recruitment firms that service the intelligence community. A search on website IntelligenceCareers.com – headed by former army intelligence officer William Golden – found highly paid jobs in Iraq and Japan as well as all over the US. Many required "top secret" security clearance. Of those private firms with a top secret clearance, more than a quarter came into being since 9/11.

The benefits are obvious to employees. Pay is higher and some companies have offered sign-on bonuses or free cars. It is estimated that contractors from more than 100 firms make up a third of the CIA.

And as the rest of America suffers recession, this is an economic boom. The US intelligence budget last year was $80bn, more than twice 2001 levels.

When CIA agent Raymond Davis was arrested in Pakistan after shooting dead two men in Lahore it caused a huge diplomatic spat. But what went mostly unrealised was that Davis, engaged to work in one of the world's most dangerous places, was a contractor.

Those cashing in on the international "war on terror" pale beside the security boom that is taking place in the US itself. Across America, new organisations sprang up in the wake of 9/11 as the flow of money was turned on. Nine days after the tragedy, Congress committed $40bn to fortify America's domestic anti-terror defences. In 2002, the figure was a further $36.5bn. In 2003 it was $44bn. More than 260 new government organisations have been created since 2001. The biggest of all is the Department of Homeland Security, whose workforce is 230,000-strong and awaiting new headquarters in Washington, which will be the biggest new federal building since the Pentagon. It is rising up on the grounds of a former asylum.

Since 2003, the DHS has distributed more than $30bn to state and local governments to spend on security and counter-terrorism. The Washington Post last year produced an exhaustive survey called Top Secret America. It revealed there are now 1,271 government organisations and 1,931 private firms related to counter-terrorism, intelligence or homeland security in some 10,000 locations around the US. In the Washington DC area, they have built enough new office space to add up to three Pentagons. A startling 854,000 Americans now hold top secret security clearances, around 250,000 of them in the private sector.

Among the things created are Fusion Centres. There are around 70 of them across the US, set up to allow local law enforcement to collect data on "suspicious activity". Critics claim there is little for them to do, and point to mistakes. The North Texas Fusion Centre, for example, once issued a warning of a "significant" threat posed by a harmless local Muslim civil rights group. Civil rights activists have also complained they threaten data privacy laws and bring in military and corporate interests into policing civilians. "It is odd to create a whole intelligence apparatus in a decade. One that exists only because of bureaucratic inefficiency and not national security needs," said David Rittgers of the Cato Institute. What security impact does he think they have had? "None. We could abolish Fusion Centres tomorrow. Any intelligent analysis would show we don't need these things."

Airport scanners are another big business that has sprung up since 9/11. Tech firm L-3 has won nearly $900m in business from the Transportation Security Administration. L-3's full-body scanners, which cost around $200,000 each, are being rolled out across the US, boosted by the unsuccessful terror attack in 2009 by a would-be plane bomber who put a device in his underwear. Yet a report by the Government Accountability Office found that it was "unclear" if scanners could have detected the bomb. "They have vastly overbuilt the airport security complex," said Chris Calabrese, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

There is precedent though. Prior to the body scanners, so-called "puffers" were tried. They used a gust of air to detect particles on clothing. After spending $20m, the TSA abandoned the scheme in 2007. Though that pales in comparison with the $1bn given to Boeing to build a hi-tech wall on the border with Mexico.

That scheme, created in part out of a fear of terrorists crossing over, was scrapped with just 53 miles of it built.

One of the main reasons for the ongoing gold rush in national security lies on "K Street" in Washington, the busy downtown thoroughfare is where many lobbying firms have their headquarters, clustered around the fountain of national security funding like bees around a hive. "Wherever there is government money in that amount, there is going to be a swarm of lobbyists. They are very active players," said Michael Beckel, a researcher at the Centre for Responsive Politics watchdog.

Spending on lobbying by the scanning industry has doubled in the past five years. Lobbyists for the industry pull out all the stops, too: they once rolled scanners into the Capitol in a bid to persuade lawmakers of their usefulness.

But more important than the millions spent by businesses involved in national security is who is doing the lobbying. The border between lobbying firms and the government departments they seduce is called simply the "revolving door". A startling eight out of 10 lobbyists for the scanner industry come from a previous career in government or congress.

Among firms specialising in intelligence work, the picture is the same. Booz Allen once hired James Woolsey, a former head of the CIA. Northrop Grumman hired former NSA director William Studeman. CACI hired Barbara McNamara, an NSA deputy director. It is the same in the military, where defence firms snap up retiring generals as advisers and lobbyists. Between 2004 and 2008, a startling 80% of retiring three- and four-star officers went to work in the private sector.

All of this could perhaps be understood on grounds of cost. After all, much of the original justification for contracting and bringing the private sector into national security was that it was cheaper. But this is not true. A 2008 survey of the DHS found that contractors made up 29% of staff, but some 49% of the budget. "By all means spend money on national security, but spend it wisely," said Mueller.

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Secret files show UK, US 'ties' to Kadhafi regime

Jakarta Globe, September 03, 2011

One note said London was keen for Blair to meet Kadhafi in a Bedouin
tent as "the journalists would love it"

British and US intelligence cooperated closely with Libya, with prisoners being offered to Moamer Kadhafi's regime under the rendition programme, a report said Saturday citing files found in Tripoli.

British daily The Independent said the secret documents discovered in the office of former Libyan foreign minister Mussa Kussa also show that Britain passed details of exiled opponents to Kadhafi's spies.

The cache further shows that it was the office of former prime minister Tony Blair that requested that a 2004 meeting with Kadhafi in Tripoli should take place in a Bedouin tent, the daily said.

There was no immediate reaction from British or US authorities to the report.

The paper said the documents would raise questions about the ties that Britain, in particular, and the United States forged with Kussa and the regime as the western powers tried to bring Libya out of isolation.

Kussa flew to Britain in March and defected, but despite being accused of rights violations was allowed to fly to Qatar the following month.

The Independent said the papers include letters and faxes to Kussa headed "Greetings from MI6" (Britain's foreign intelligence service) and a personal Christmas greeting signed by a senior British spy with the epithet "Your friend".

It also cites a US administration document, marked secret, saying that it was "in a position" to deliver a man named as Shaykh Musa, a member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, "to your physical custody."

"We respectfully request an expression of interest from your service regarding taking custody of Musa," it quotes the document as saying.

In a separate report the Wall Street Journal said files show strong cooperation between the CIA and Kadhafi's intelligence agencies, including shipping terror suspects to the North African country for interrogation.

The Central Intelligence Agency, under the administration of then-president George W. Bush, brought terror suspects to Libya and suggested questions that Libyan interrogators should ask them, it said, citing documents found at the headquarters of Libya's External Security agency.

The CIA also moved to set up in 2004 "a permanent presence" in the country, the Journal said, according to a note from CIA top operative Stephen Kappes.

Secret CIA rendition flights transported dozens of terror suspects around the world following the 9/11 attacks, often for interrogation in third countries.

Meanwhile British intelligence in a letter dated April 16, 2004 informs a Libyan security agency that a Libyan opposition actvist had been freed from British detention, the Independent said.

A further document purportedly from MI6 seeks information about a suspect travelling on a Libyan passport, adding that it is a "sensitive operation".

The cache also shows that a statement given by Kadhafi announcing that his regime was giving up weapons of mass destruction in a bid to shed its pariah status was put together with the help of British officials.

A letter addressed to a Libyan official from British intelligence attached a "tidied up version of the language we agreed...", it said.

Meanwhile the Independent said a sizeable amount of the correspondence was devoted to preparations for Blair's landmark Tripoli visit, and showed that Kussa played a role as conduit with the premier's 10 Downing Street office.

In one, it said an MI6 officer wrote to Kussa saying: "No.10 are keen that the Prime Minister meet the leader in his tent. I don't know why the English are fascinated by tents. The plain fact is the journalists would love it."

Blair was duly pictured shaking hands with Kadhafi in a Bedouin tent.

AFP

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Alleged CIA letter

Dear Musa

I am glad to propose that our services take an additional step in cooperation with the establishment of a permanent CIA presence in Libya. We have talked about this move for quite some time and Libya's cooperation on WMD and other issues, as well as our recent intelligence cooperation, mean that now is the right moment to move ahead. I am prepared to send [XXX] to Libya to introduce two of my officers to you and your service, arriving in Tripoli on 20 March. These two officers, both of whom are experienced and can speak Arabic, will initially staff our station in Libya. [XXX] will communicate the details via fax. I will call to confirm this with you.

We are also eager to work with you in the questioning of the terrorist we recently rendered to your country. I would like to send to Libya an additional two officers and I would appreciate if they could have direct access to question this individual. Should you agree I would like to send these two officers to Libya on 25 March. Again [XXX] will communicate the details to you.

Steve

CIA censors 9/11 book

Gay military magazine coming to US bases

The Jakarta Post, September 03, 2011

Former soldiers and gay rights groups have fought for years to
overturn the ban on openly gay troops

US officials have approved the distribution of a gay-themed magazine at Army and Air Force bases for the first time, coinciding with the end of a ban on openly gay troops, according to activists.

OutServe Magazine, which caters to gay members of the armed forces, said it would deliver a special "repeal issue" on September 20, the day the prohibition against openly gay US service members is due to officially end.

The upcoming edition will feature photos and biographies of nearly 100 service members who will be openly acknowledging their sexual orientation, the magazine said on its website on Friday.

"This marks an incredible time in the history of our military. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual servicemembers once had to conceal their true identities," said a OutServe co-director on the website, who withheld his or her identity while the ban remains in effect.

"By featuring their pictures and their stories, we are signaling that time has passed. It is time for these military members to be honored for their extraordinary commitment and sacrifice in defense of our country," the co-director said.

The US Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which oversees merchandise and restaurants permitted to operate on military bases, approved the distribution of the magazine on publication racks, defense officials said.

"The Army Air Force Exchange Service centrally contracts for the distribution of free publications," a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

Former soldiers and gay rights groups have fought for years to overturn the ban, introduced in 1993 as a compromise after military chiefs rejected a bid by former president Bill Clinton to open the doors to gay soldiers.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" required gay troops to keep quiet about their sexual orientation or face expulsion from the forces, and an estimated 14,000 service members have been kicked out of the military under the rule.

AFP

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US 'to sue a dozen banks over housing bubble mortgages'

BBC News, 2 September 2011

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The US is planning to sue more than a dozen major banks for misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they sold during the housing bubble, the New York Times reports.

Goldman Sachs is expected to be one of the
banks facing legal action

The Federal Housing Finance Agency will argue that the banks should have known the securities were not sound.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs are to face action, the newspaper quotes sources as saying.

The suits could be filed as early as Friday, it adds.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency - which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - blames the banks for failing to perform adequate checks on the quality of mortgage securities they sold on to investors before the financial crisis in 2008.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost more than $30bn (£18.5bn), partly because of the deals, and had to be bailed out by the government.

The suits follow subpoenas the finance agency issued to banks last year, according to the newspaper.

The BBC's Marcus George in Washington says this is the latest of a number of lawsuits against financial institutions who were involved in the practice of issuing mortgage-backed securities.

However, some executives say the losses were made because of the wider economic downturn.

Others fear further litigation against banks could damage America's fragile recovery, our correspondent adds.

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Exclusive: Perry sought to sideline nuclear waste site critic

Reuters, by Chris Baltimore, Peter Henderson and Karen Brooks,AUSTIN, Texas, Thu Sep 1, 2011

Republican presidential candidate Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks
 to people during a campaign stop in Walcott, Iowa, in this file image
from August 16, 2011. (Credit: REUTERS/Jim Young/Files)

(Reuters) - Texas governor Rick Perry tried to sideline a state commissioner who opposed expanding the scope of a nuclear-waste landfill owned by one of the governor's biggest political donors, Reuters has learned.

Bobby Gregory, owner of a wildlife ranch and landfill company south of Austin, had opposed a plan to let 36 states send nuclear waste to a 1,338-acre site in Andrews County.

On the other side of the issue was billionaire Harold Simmons and his company Waste Control Specialists LLC, which stood to gain millions of dollars from accepting out-of-state shipments. Simmons had donated over $1 million to Perry's gubernatorial campaigns.

A report in the Los Angeles Times in August examined the case of the Texas waste site and Perry's ties to Simmons, a conservative who funded the Swift Boat campaign that helped torpedo John Kerry's presidential bid.

Perry maintains his appointments are based on merit, and Simmons is inclined to help any conservative Republican, spokespeople for the two said.

In any case, the January vote by the eight-member Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission was key to the future profitability of the nuclear landfill.

Reuters has learned that late last year, after it became clear that the commission might block Waste Control's request to truck in waste from around the country, Perry's appointments chief, Teresa Spears, offered commissioner Gregory an alternative job -- a prestigious appointment as a regent of a state university.

Under Texas law, Gregory could not hold two state-appointed positions requiring Senate approval at the same time, and so taking the regent job would have required him to leave the waste commission.

Gary Newton, a lawyer for Gregory's company, Texas Disposal Systems, told Reuters his boss declined the offer. "There was a call from Ms. Spears. Bobby said they asked him if he was interested in this position. It was a Board of Regents position. He said 'No, I'm not interested in that type of appointment,' and declined," Newton said.

Gregory's term as commissioner ended on August 31 this year, so Perry can now replace him. The waste commission voted in January to allow imports, though it still has to examine and approve specific applications to import waste on a case-by-case basis.

Perry spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said: "Governor Perry's decisions are based solely on what's in the best interests of the people of Texas."

The news of Perry's intervention in the nuclear-waste issue comes as the governor is climbing the polls in the fight to take on President Barack Obama as the Republican candidate in the U.S. presidential election next year.

The Texan is running on a pro-jobs, pro-business platform. His political foes allege that he has granted favors to businesses owned by Perry donors (which wouldn't necessarily be improper under Texas campaign-finance rules). The governor's camp says he pushes the interests of all business in Texas.

FIGHT OVER IMPORTS

The WCS-operated site will store 2.3 million cubic feet of low-level nuclear waste, which is everything from cut up nuclear power plants, to radioactive detritus from hospitals and research labs -- but not spent nuclear fuel itself.

A key issue for the economics of the nuclear waste site was whether it would be allowed to handle waste imported from states other than Vermont. Texas already had a "compact" deal to handle Vermont's low-level waste.

In the latter part of 2010, Gregory was one of two people on the eight-member panel known to oppose allowing out of state imports. Two other members of the panel were Republican appointees from Vermont who favored the imports, but they were due to be replaced, presumably by Democratic appointees who would be in the opposition camp, early in 2011.

That could have swung the balance of the committee from 6-2 in favor to a 4-4 stalemate. Replacing Gregory would have given importation proponents the vote to carry the day.

After Gregory declined the job offer, the commission was called to vote on January 4, before the terms of the Vermont Republicans ended.

At a meeting that day, Gregory pleaded with his fellow commissioners to vote against importation.

"Without question in my mind this is too much, too soon, too fast, and I've added the caveat -- if at all," Gregory told the meeting. "It is beyond preposterous, it is beyond absurd," that the commission should vote without reading over 5,000 public comments, he said.

The panel voted 5-2 in favor of allowing out-of-state imports, and the Texas legislature sealed the importation allowance into law in May.

The Andrews County dump could begin accepting waste late in 2011 or early in 2012.

Perry's spokeswoman did not dispute the details of the regent offer, but would not comment on the donor's ties to Perry or the governor's intention to remove a waste specialist from a waste regulatory board in favor of overseeing a university. She broadly defended the process.

"Governor Perry makes appointments based on the qualifications of an individual and his or her ability to serve in Texans' best interests, nothing more," Frazier said. "As you may know, the project you mention was approved overwhelmingly by the Texas legislature, and has the support of the local community," she added.

Simmons' support of Perry is not unique and extends to Republican conservative candidates nationwide, said Chuck McDonald, spokesman for Waste Control Specialists, who dismissed any suggestion that Simmons' donations had gained him any favors from Perry or state regulators.

"The record is pretty clear: If you are a conservative Republican seeking office, Mr. Simmons is going to support you," McDonald said. "Every congressman who comes dragging through Texas, if he stops in (Simmons') office and he's got an "R" by his name, he's going to get money."

(Editing and additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Claudia Parsons and Michael Williams)

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Best paid US bosses 'earn more than their firm's taxes'

BBC News, 31 August 2011

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The 25 highest paid US chief executives earned more last year than their companies paid in federal income tax, a study has said.

General Electric said the report was "inaccurate"

The average annual remuneration of the 25 bosses was $16.7m (£10.3m), the left-leaning think tank Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) found.

One chief executive on its list is General Electric's Jeff Immelt, who the IPS said was paid $15.2m in 2010 while his firm got a $3.3bn tax refund.

GE said the report was "inaccurate".

Its spokesman said the study did not include significant federal income taxes paid in 2010 for previous years.

"GE pays what it owes," he added.

The IPS report excluded what the companies paid in foreign, state and local taxes. It also did not include deferred taxes, because it said they may or may not ultimately be paid.

Other bosses on the IPS list are those of eBay and Boeing.

A Boeing spokesman said the report was "simply wrong".

'Weakness'

The IPS said two thirds of the 25 bosses were the heads of companies that utilised offshore subsidiaries in tax havens such as Bermuda, Singapore and Luxembourg.

IPS senior scholar and co-author of the report Chuck Collins said: "I think it's an exposure of weakness in a company if their profitability is dependent on their accounting department and not on making better widgets."

The think tank also found many of the firms spent more on lobbying politicians than they did on taxes.

The IPS said Boeing spent $20.8m on lobbying, while paying only $13m in federal income taxes.

Its report hit a nerve on Capitol Hill, with Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings calling for hearings on executive pay.

Mr Cummings, who sits on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said an investigation was needed "to examine the extent to which the problems in CEO compensation that led to the economic crisis continue to exist today".